Houston Breakthrough, February 1977 - Page 15. February 1977. Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries. University of Houston Digital Library. Web. December 9, 2016. http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/feminist/item/4451/show/4444.

Disclaimer: This is a general citation for reference purposes. Please consult the most recent edition of your style manual for the proper formatting of the type of source you are citing. If the date given in the citation does not match the date on the digital item, use the more accurate date below the digital item.

Disclaimer: This is a general citation for reference purposes. Please consult the most recent edition of your style manual for the proper formatting of the type of source you are citing. If the date given in the citation does not match the date on the digital item, use the more accurate date below the digital item.

Disclaimer: This is a general citation for reference purposes. Please consult the most recent edition of your style manual for the proper formatting of the type of source you are citing. If the date given in the citation does not match the date on the digital item, use the more accurate date below the digital item.

Educational use only, no other permissions given. Copyright to this resource is held by the content creator, author, artist or other entity, and is provided here for educational purposes only. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without written permission of the copyright owner. For more information please see UH Digital Library Fair Use policy on the UH Digital Library About page.

File Name

index.cpd

▼

Item Description

Title

Page 15

Format (IMT)

image/jpeg

File Name

femin_201109_525o.jpg

Transcript

'Battered Wives' author
talks on crisis housing
By Ann Harris
Battered women are reaching
out. Those who are in that
situation are seeking help; those
who have extricated themselves
are offering it.
Del Martin, author of Battered
Wives, who lectured here recently to the YWCA Committee for
Women in Crisis, talked about
establishing refuges.
A typical response to Martin's
appearance was one woman's
emphatic announcement, "I'm
going to show everyone now that
there is life after battering." This
successful career person and
mother finds that, in speaking
publicly for the first time about
her years of beating, she can give
other women hope and the impetus to take control of their own
lives. As she relives her experiences, she frees herself of the
vestiges of fear, isolation and
shame inherent in the battered
wife syndrome.
Kirkendall reports that a aen-
nite opening date for a shelter
will be announced next month. At
present, there is a frustrating
disparity between the number of
pleas for help and the available
resources. The main emergency
housing facility for women is the
Salvation Army Home. They are
adding 30 beds to reduce the
overcrowding, but women may
stay only three days and cannot
have a male child over eight with
them. Intensive psychotherapy,
essential during crisis periods, is
offered by only four agencies, all
of whom have long waiting lists.
The word must continue to be
spread about wife beating. If
people are not aroused, the
essential money and man/wom-
anpower are much more difficult
to secure because the victims
remain silent and invisible and
their need for services remains
emotional guesswork, not statistical reality. Del Martin chafes at
bureaucratic necessity: "They
don't really need the statistics or
numbers game, because wherever a shelter is established it's
DEL MARTIN
PEGGY KIRKENDALL
Breakthrough's lead story in
December awakened many to the
fact that wife-beating cuts across
class and racial lines — no group
of women is safe from this
violence, just as no woman is safe
from rape. Sara Lowrey's ten-
part series, "The Crime Nobody
Reports" for KPRC-TV, detailed
;he legal dilemma women face
when caught in this oppression.
Peggy Kirkendall, Chair of the Y
Committee, appeared on radio
and television talk shows to
discuss the problem of beaten
women and the progress in
opening a shelter.
Over the last two months, the
number of battered women seeking help has risen sharply. The
main branch of the Y now
receives almost 200 of these calls
each month (523-6881). This increase, due largely to the publicity which this issue has received
lately, was reported by Crisis
Hotline as well (228-1505).
Battered women are only now
learning that their problem is
widespread and that help rs
becoming available. In addition
to the crisis pleas, one to two
non-emergency calls a day ask for
information about the shelter.
The Hotline is cooperating with
the Y Committee in statistically
documenting the need in Houston for services for these women
in crisis. advocate service are developing.
Page 14 • February 1977 • Houston Breakthrough
always immediately filled, so the
need is obvious. Women have to
cry really loud and clear that
money is needed for services, not
studies of 'do we need services?' " She noted that less than
one percent of the grants
awarded yearly go for women's
projects and these are usually not
for services.
The YWCA Committee for
Women in Crisis recently received a grant of almost $6000
from the Hogg Foundation to hire
a program developer to secure
funding and facilities for the
Houston refuge for battered
women. The position will be filled
this month. The program
developer will also coordinate the
complicated administrative details that until now have, of
necessity, been handled by
volunteers.
The Houston Area NOW Task
Force on Domestic Violence,
chaired by Catherine Livingston,
is recruiting and organizing volunteers to help in afl facets of the
Y Committee's efforts. (Call 524-
7149 to offer time, money, skills,
material goods.)
The Task Force is also preparing a legal and general information pamphlet to spell out immediate action to take when
beaten. Telephone hotline volunteer training programs and an
The Y Committee is scheduling
workshops for professionals in
mental health, medicine, religion, law and law enforcement to
re-evaluate the unique problems
encountered in helping battered
women to a better life. (Call Dr.
Toby Faires at 797-1976 to participate.) The workshops are designed also to raise the matching
funds stipulated by the grant.
Speakers for public groups will
be available. (Call Jo Stewart
790-2720.)
Peer support groups, assisted
by trained counselors, are already forming. Local branches of
the YWCA will offer meeting
space so battered women will not
have to travel impossible distances to find help. Child care
will be provided. (Call the main
YWCA on Allen Parkway for
details - 523-6881.)
The Y envisions a program in
which:
The battered woman is not
judged. Direct and constructive
problem-solving can take the
place of comments such as,
"These women all waste my
time. They file charges but never
follow through." (a woman prosecuting attorney.) "I think they
must be masochists. / would
never stay if a man hit me."
(several active feminists) "Women have brought a lot of this on
themselves." (a male police officer after Del Martin's speech.)
The battered woman is believed. She is assured that she is
neither alone nor crazy. She is
supported in recognizing her own
worth. She is given concrete
information that allows her to act
directly to change her life.
The husband is held accountable. She is not held responsible for causing her own
beating. This is in contrast to
excuses often heard from friends
and family, and even from the
beaten wife herself when she is
without support from her peers.
Del Martin believes: "It we get
the problem of wife beating
solved, we will have the social
and economic revolution feminists are working for."
"We should start in family life
classes in elementary school to
educate children in attitudes and
values that will prevent wife
beating." She also calls for men
to exert social pressure on men
who are beating women, or even
joking about it. "By doing nothing, we as a society condone
abusive behavior. It is time to say
no. Our culture sets women up to
be victims and then blames them
when they are. If she escapes,
the trade-off in this society is
often to poverty because she has
not been trained in a career, or
even if she has been, she's paid
much less than a man. The
beaten woman is often stalked by
the man. She has no guarantee of
child custody or support."
Battered Wives is available at
The Bookstore and Libran, or
through Glide Publications, 330
Ellis St., San Francisco, California 94102 for $6.95.
Adam and Even
Plays for living
By Beverly Hebert
Adam and Even, a play that
explores myths about women, is
being offered to the community
by the Family Service Center.
This play is one of several
one-act dramas in a Plays for
Living series, funded by the
Texas Committee for the Humanities and Public Policy.
All of the plays use the living
theatre to dramatize the impact
of social problems on individual
families. Themes include: the
separation between a parent and
a child, parental disharmony,
child abuse, and racist and sexist
attitudes.
Mary Beth Splaine, director of
the program, believes the
strength of the plays lies in the
use of "gentle satire." They
communicate without being
threatening.
Adam and Even, Splaine says,
calls for understanding between
the sexes as women find their
new roles and as men learn to
accept a "woman" as an individual and reject the group stereotypes assigned to "women."
The play examines the discrimination against women that still
exists in employment — despite
all the legislation on the books.
Harry is the executive searching for the right man to fill a
position in the company. Irene,
his secretary, wants the job and
that complicates his problem.
Even after she helps him solve a
business crisis, he hesitates to
recommend her.
In a dream sequence the play
uses role reversals to dramatize
sex roles and expectations.
Three women are leaning over
Harry, speculating on his future.
Someday, they murmur, he'll
grow up to be a husband and
father.... A wedding march begins to play and a woman in the
role of minister pronounces the
couple standing before her
"woman and husband." When
she greets Harry as "Mr. Bartholomew," he tries to explain she
has made a mistake — Bartholomew is his wife's name — he is
Harry Willard.
He swallows many more indignities women are conditioned to
accept before he finally rebels
and shouts at a group of whistling, cat-calling females, "Look
at me!" ME! I'm Harry! Not
Mary! You jerks! You jackasses!
Respect me! I'm a person!"
At the play's end, Irene speaks
with quiet despair: "I think
people tend to become what
they're expected to become. After a while, you really get to be
how you're treated."
Despite the play's understanding of women's problems, it is
clearly also sympathetic to the
male position. "The play is
dedicated to dialogue between
women and men," says Splaine.
"Our most successful discussion
takes place after mixed screenings." The half-hour plays are
followed by short discussions led
by persons using a humanistic
approach that is receptive to all
opinions expressed. Discussion
leaders for Adam and Even are:
Dr. Carrin Dunne of the Department of Religious Studies at Rice
University; Dr. Joy Wilson, of the
Department of English at the
University of St. Thomas; Nina
Tucci of the French Department
at the University of Houston.
Local plays are performed by
the Country Playhouse - Houston
for schools, churches, PTAs,
business groups and women's
and men's organizations.
For booking information, call
Mary Beth Splaine at 524-3881.